Hey. So I've played Morrowind for a while, but never actually completed the Main Quest. So for the past week or so, I had set out to take down Dagoth'Ur.
Since it's been so long since I completed the rest of the story, I'm not exactly sure I understand what happened.

By Uriel Septim's orders, the reincarnation of Indoril Nerevar, the Nerevarine, is sent to Morrowind. Why the Emperor has interest in the Nervarine I'm still unsure. The Temple insists that Lord Nerevar was killed in battle or something like that, but he was actually murdered by Vivec, Sotha Sil, and Almalexia to gain immortality. The Temple is out to prove the nerevarine prophecy fake for some reason. How the tribunal did gain immortality I have no idea. Dagoth'Ur was once Nerevar's friend but was betrayed by Nerevar? Vivec killed Nerevar, but tries to help the Nerevarine slay Dagoth'Ur?

I'm just so confused, and this is really bugging me.
Could someone sort this out? And if possible, explain the Ashlanders, Nerevarine Cult, where Azura comes into the equation, Dissendant priests, Vivec and the other tribunal, Dagoth'Ur, Sixth House, how the story played out, what the deal with the heart in red mountain was all about; the whole nine yards.
If so, that would be fantastic. I don't think a story has ever bugged me like this one.

Sorry, i am too lazy to answer your questions because that takes a lot of time but vave you tried reading the ingame books that are mentioned during the MQ?
They will give the different perspectives of the true story about what happened to Nerevar.

Also on the matter of the interest of the Emperor, i tend to think that if he can unsettle the Temple in MW, maybe the nine divines can replace the Temple as the "true" religion. That is why you are sent to fullfill the prophecy.
Maybe he cooperated with Azura?

I remember reading several books at one point or another in time, but for the life of me I can't remember a thing any of them informed me of.

Have you tried http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/?

Remember that Uriel Septim (If you have played Oblivion that is) is something of an Oracle. He MIGHT have sent the Nerevarine to Morrowind to combat the forces of Oblivion like you're tasked to in the sequel

Long ago, the Chimer(Dunmer, but with golden skin) went to war with the Dwemer in Vvardenfell. The leader of the Chimer was Indoril Nerevar, leader of House Indoril and Hortator of all the other houses, just the boss. He ended up defeating the Dwemer king and in battle, was killed. That was the 'fake' story. The true story is that they found Kagrenac's tools in the Red Mountain. Kagrenac was the lead scientist of the dwemer, and he was using his tools to tamper with the power of the gods.

The tools were the Wraithguard, the Keening and the Sunder. When they tapped into the power of these tools, they disappeared. No one knows what happened, and there's only one Dwemer left in Tamriel, who resides in Tel Fyr's Corprusarium.

Dagoth Ur, then named Volyn Dagoth, and Indoril Nerevar found the Heart of Lorkhan, which was the source of immortal power, inside the Red Mountain, along with Kagrenac's tools, so Nerevar told Dagoth to guard them while he consulted his advisors as to what to do. When they returned, Dagoth was ensnared by the power of immortality so Nerevar killed him. He wanted to destroy the Heart of Lorkhan and Kagrenac's tools, but Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil didn't. They did something stupid, I remember reading that Almalexia used poisoned candles, Sotha Sil used poisoned robes, and Vivec used poisoned invocations, and they killed Indoril Nerevar. They used the tools and the Heart to become immortal, and that is when Azura got pissed and cursed the Chimer, turning their eyes to fire and their skin to ash, creating the Dunmer.

In Morrowind, there was alot going on. There were prophecies of the Nerevarine, Nerevar Incarnate, and the rise of House Dagoth (The Sixth House). Dissident Priests were those who were preaching of the Nerevarine, and they were being hunted by the Tribunal Temple because the Tribunal betrayed and killed Nerevar, a story the Dissident's knew about. The Tribunal wanted to keep their power, and the Dissident Priests were causing trouble.

The Emperor sends someone he thought could be the Nerevarine to fulfill the prophecy, to restore order to Vvardenfell, which he was trying hard to get a strong foothold in.

The Main Quest is basically: 1.) Find information about the Nerevarine Prophecy and the Sixth House, 2.) Learn that you could be the Nerevarine, 3.) Become the Nerevarine, 4.) Destroy House Dagoth

LoL, I was almost done typing up this really long reply when sryner beat me to it

Though as I understood it no one really knows what actually happened to Indoril Nerevar. There are a lot of different versions and no way to be sure which one is true. The destruction of the heart of Lorkhan would mean that the tribunal would lose their powers, but they were doing that anyway since they had lost almost all of the tools that allowed them to draw their divinity from the heart. Vivec helps the nerevarine because he knows there's nothing the tribunal can do to stop Dagoth Ur. All his strength goes toward maintaining the ghost fence.
The temple rejects the nerevarine prophecy because they don't believe Nerevar was murdered by the tribunal.

The ashlanders are dunmer who reject the modern practices of the great houses and chose to live in the traditional manner as nomads. Most of them want nothing to do with the empire and would rather see all foreigners disappear from Morrowind. They also see the tribunal as false gods.

OK, that helped a ton.
So Azura is helping the Nerevarine because he was going to do the right thing at first/to get revenge.
And Vivec is loosing his power to Dagoth Ur and realizes that he is becoming an increasing threat, so he wants the Nerevarine to destroy the heart.

I think that pretty much clears up everything. Thanks for the help, everyone. I really appreciate it.

i completed the main quest for the first time today.

i wasnt pleased with the fact that the only thing i got was a measly ring rom azura

So, from a perspective, Vivec is just as bad as Dagoth Ur, no?

Worse, I'd say. In fact, one of the qualities people seem to like most of Dagoth Ur is his moral ambiguity. He's not just some bad guy who wants to destroy the world or some such for no apparent reason other than he's 'evil.' Sometimes, I've wondered just who is the 'villain.'

You could see it like that, but in the tribunals defense they actually did a lot of good with their powers before they started losing them.

Wow. That just opened up a whole new world to me.
I'm going to create a new character, and I'm debating whether he should present justice upon Vivec given the opportunity.

Weeeell, if you take into account the events of the Infernal City..

Oh God! :facepalm:

What happened with that?

Have you considered that the Nerevarine may be an unwitting catspaw for Azura to restore Daedric Worship as the basis for Dunmer religion? Remember she ultimately guides the Main quests in both Vvardenfell and Mournhold.
My Elf chars, incidentally, are or become convinced believers in Azura.

I've not read The Infernal City. I suppose I'd better get around to that, seeing as how it adds to the lore quite drastically, from what I understand.

It adds a ton. It closes what happens after Oblivion and really changes how the Empire holds Tamriel. Really cool how they do it, though I'm somewhat displeased with just HOW much they changed.

Not nearly as much as most people, though.

yeah, there are a few things in the Infernal city that I wasn't too happy about. But in the end. It was bound to happen.
You should definitely go read it. All in all I loved it.

I can't help but feel bad for Dagoth Ur. I wish there was a way I could've convinced him to join me and cast down the heart and the false gods of the tribunal.
But he would have to give up his god powers and his army as well... I don't think he would have made that compromise.

Alas, Dagoth Ur's very existence was to be a way for the player to fulfill their goal of becoming the hero of the story.

*Cast revive magnitude 100*

----Necro post cometh----

I was actually going to start a new thread on a somewhat related question when I stumbled across this gem via the search.

Anyway, my original question was if there was any resource that I could look at that showed me (or told) what area House Indoril controlled before it had its legs cut out from under it by House Hlaalu. I used to always join house Hlaalu but after what I've read, never again.. backstabbing sobs. Also, I'll never trust the Temple again, murdering sobs. One thing I have a hard time wrapping my head around is how willing Almalexia is/was to kill her husband, I mean it just sort of seems out of the blue, nothing I've read indicates that they were having any domestic issues, and yet after finding those "godly tools" it seemed like a light switch was flipped and she is right there with the other conspirators.

This really awakened me in how "wrong" I feel I've been playing my Nerevarine character. It also doesn't make much sense to me why the Emperor would send a possible reincarnated Nerevar to Morrowind. House Indoril was one of the major players in the resistance to Imperial expansion in the area, just seems odd that the Emperor would want to risk the player actually being Nerevar reborn and uniting the country against the Empire again. I'm also gonna be a miffed Nerevar that the tribunal hijacked the military wing of House Indoril (ie the Ordinators)

Anyway, any ideas on the actual land holdings (location) of House Indoril?

If I remember right (and it has been a long time since I played) House Indoril's land was on the main continent part of MW - the part that the developers did not create.

Side note: the modders at Tameriel Rebuilt are working on creating the mainland part of MW. Maybe one day we will see House Indoril.

Nerevar may have wanted to destroy the heart and didn't know how, but it seems much more likely that he did not know what to do with the heart and the tools, hence why he attempted to summon Azura for counsel (where all the poisoning comes from).

Who is the villain? Read it, worship it. http://www.imperial-library.info/content/trial-vivec

That would make sense why I haven't been able to locate any in game reading material, or very obscure info outside the game about where House Indoril's land was actually located. I've read things that say Vivec could be considered part of House Indoril because essentially it's controlled by the militant wing of the house. If I'm reading things right the suspected murderers of Nerevar (which I personally think they did) all originated as part of House Indoril, so technically speaking Vivec could be considered Indoril property upon Nerevars return. The same could be said of Mournhold I believe since it's essentially Almalexia's city.

It's all speculation on my part, and I haven't studied the lore really in depth yet. I'm just trying to get my bearing on how to "really" role play my Nerevarine character.